Call for Australian Town to go Cage Egg-free

AUSTRALIA - A group in Alice Springs group wants the town to phase out the use of caged eggs.

Sue Ripley and Nettie Silver started the ‘Free Alice’ campaign in the hope of convincing the Red Centre town that it is possible to use only free-range eggs.

ABC reports that the duo is visiting cafes and restaurants in Alice Springs, raising awareness about the living conditions of battery hens and encouraging businesses to adopt free-range eggs.

"There are 11 million hens in confined cages at the moment and obviously there are other terrible practices such as de-beaking, but the main issue for us to start off with is to get them out of cages," Ms Silver said.

She says there has been positive feedback so far, despite only one cafe in the Todd Mall using free-range eggs.

"From individuals it’s been 100 per cent supportive. We did a walk up the Mall last week and spoke to all the businesses and only found one business using free-range."

Ms Ripley says the change should not make the staple food unaffordable.

She told ABC: "One of the major supermarkets has their own branded free-range egg, which was 37 cents per egg. And if you compare this to other caged eggs, it’s actually quite reasonable and cheaper compared to the other caged eggs."